After I said that, Lilith lept forward, giving me a tight hug. “Take care of yourself this time, okay? And don’t forget to call if you need me.”
Wrapping my arms around her, I nodded my head. “Of course. And, it looks like I won’t need to hide that I’m a mage anymore. People on the other side have already figured it out.”
After a few moments, Lilith released me and stepped back. “Good. Things should get more interesting with you being more public.”
“I can’t reveal my demon connection just yet, but that shouldn’t take too much longer. If you tell Kiras-- sorry.. If you tell Shi to talk about his experiences as a demon with other foreigners when he is back home, it should move things along pretty quickly.”
Lilith blinked a bit, and then widened her smile. “I’ll do that.”
Once we said our goodbyes, I went off to find a quiet place to enchant my robes. Since I had the essences now, there was no reason why I couldn’t create a good demonic robe. Furthermore, this item may have other benefits, given that it will constantly be bathed in hellfire.
Off in a corner room of the palace, I found a suitably empty room. The first step was to draw up my plan for the robe. The basis for the enchantment would be centered around the Hellfire Aura spell, so it was fairly easy for me to create the diagram. Next, since I was using the essences, another layer of complexity was added. Outside the initial spell diagram, three more enchanting circles were drawn.
The purpose of these three circles was to channel the condensed magic from each essence in order to infuse it into the main spell diagram. To avoid the magic leaking out, a final circle was needed to encompass the entire pattern. Lastly, the connection between the three outer circles and the main diagram had to be formed from a spiral pattern rather than lines. Specifically, a fibonacci spiral, where the outer areas are exponentially larger than the inner ones. The reason for this is to funnel the magic to completely fill the diagram simultaneously.
With the full diagram set up, after carefully carving it out with my magic over the course of an hour, I removed the unenchanted robe and three essences from the Artifact World. Each essence went at the center of one of the outer circles, while the robe was laid out neatly over the inner circle. In total, the area of the enchantment ritual encompassed roughly five meters in diameter.
Sitting down at the corner of the wide diagram, I placed my hands on the edge. Since I was about to pour a lot of magic into this, I temporarily stopped ‘feeding’ my homunculus. Instead, I gathered as much magic as I could manage into my arms. Thanks to my Aura talent, I could visibly see the blue lines arcing along my skin like static.
All at once, I shoved the gathered magic into the diagram, causing the once-dark room to brighten. The three essences, as well as the robe, all lifted up roughly three feet in the air. My mana was steadily dwindling thanks to the enchantment, but I watched as the three black spheres lit up again in hellfire.
Strings of black flame, as if guided by the lines on the floor, began flowing out of the essences. Three steady lines of energy rotated around the center, slowly moving inwards until they all converged on the robe. The moment the flames touched the fabric, the entire thing burst into flames. My breath caught in my throat, thinking that I might have accidentally destroyed it instead of enchanting it.
However, the process continued on, more of that infernal energy being pumped into the robe. Though it was shrouded in black flames, I could still make out the fabric within. The once natural patterns visibly shifted, going from a natural shade of red to something much darker, with black flame patterns forming along it. The change surprised me a bit, since normally items only transform after they have gone through the process of becoming infernal items. This could be an exception, though, since I am using infernal essences to transform the item.
As the process went further, the three essences began shrinking, more and more of their energy being depleted. I knew that once all three were gone the robe would be finished. The flames on the robe itself also became more powerful, causing me to feel the heat even from over two meters away.
My mana now was at the halfway mark, but the enchantment wasn’t showing signs of stopping. I considered lessening the mana I was pumping into the circle to slow it down, but I wanted the enchantment to be as powerful as possible. For that, I needed to hold out at my maximum output for as long as I could.
By the time my mana was down to a quarter of its maximum, I estimated that ten minutes had passed. Judging by the rate that the essences were draining, another two minutes would be enough to finish it. Sweat was forming along my entire body from both the heat and the pressure of maintaining this level of mana flow. I wasn’t sure exactly, but I estimated I was spending roughly a hundred and fifty mana a second, before taking my recovery rate into account.
Two more minutes passed by, and finally the last of the hellfire was pushed into the robe. Gradually, the robe floated down to the floor, the diagram on the floor ceasing its glow. Raising my hands up to wipe the sweat from my face, I took a moment to appreciate the windows that appeared in front of me.
You have created the Hellfire Robe
Hellfire Robe
Rarity: Unique
Durability: 200/200
Magic Defense: 100
Constant Effect: Hellfire Aura
This robe constantly releases an aura of pure hellfire, which can be controlled by the wearer. Be warned, the wearer is not immune to the hellfire generated by this item, and those that do not take the proper precautions may perish upon wearing it. It is possible for this item to grow stronger by absorbing its own flames.
You have created your first Unique item!
Enchanting has increased to 29
You have invested over 100,000 mana in total on a single enchantment!
Enchanting has increased to 30
You have mastered Enchanting! Due to mastering a school of magic, all spells and effects of that school will gain experience at an increased rate, and Magical Talent has increased by 1 level.
Runescript has increased to 12
Mana Pool has increased to 15
I was a bit surprised by the fact that I spent so much mana on this, but given the time it took it made sense. More importantly, I had mastered another field of magic. Finally, I had all three fields I needed for my Path of the Archmage quest, though getting the spells mastered was going to take a considerable amount of effort. Still, I was another step closer to whatever it was I was supposed to do.
Walking over to the Hellfire Robe, I knelt down and picked it up, wincing from the heat. It did not cause any real damage, but after holding it for a few seconds, I noticed it took a little bit off of my health. For now, I put the robe away in my Artifact World, since my natural resistance wasn’t high enough to completely cancel the damage. Maybe wearing it for long periods of time will increase my resistance to hellfire enough that it won’t hurt me. That was a plan I would have to try out later.
For now, I wandered off, taking just a moment to heal the small amount of damage that the robe had inflicted. Using my Message spell, I found out where Cynthia was, and headed off towards the District of Envy. Since this is the shopping district of Hell, it is only natural to find a blacksmith’s forge there as well.
Every time I walked through Hell, I expected a depressing atmosphere. After all, they have been unable to truly connect with the outside world for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Even so, the demons always seem happy, even with this life. There were probably other cities in Hell, given how large it was by Levy’s estimate. I knew that this was Hell’s capital city, known as Tartarus.
After arriving at the blacksmith’s shop, a burly red demon smiled to me and waved me through, having been informed by Cynthia that I’d be arriving soon. In the back, happily pounding away at a sheet of iron was the redheaded teen. Behind her was a collection of finely crafted swords of various design. I could tell at a glance that they were made by Cynthia, as they were not the same style
as the weapons displayed in the shop. Almost all of the swords possessed at least one socket for Mana Stones, some as many as three.
“Hey, Jin!” Cynthia looked up at me, raising the hammer in her hand as if it were weightless. Each strike seemed to shape the blade she was currently working on more and more. “How’s it going?”
“Good, good. I see you’ve been busy, here.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. I’m just about done with swords, and then I wanted to start working on some hammers. Think we’ll be here long enough for me to get a couple hammers and some suits of armor made up?”
Thinking back to what I told Lilith, I nodded. “Yeah, I figured we would stay for three or four more days. Did you learn the dwarven smithing techniques?” When she nodded her answer between strikes, I smiled. “Okay. Anything special you want me to leave you while I’m here?”
Cynthia momentarily paused her strikes, before answering. “Could you make some adamantine? They only had enough here for one sword. It’s really heavy and hard to work with, but it’s the best metal there is. Even beats mithril, according to the books.”
Nodding my head, I moved over to the side, out of the way by where the ores were stored. “Over here good?” When she told me anywhere was okay, I closed my eyes and focused. Adamantine was the strongest ore, and even a fist sized piece of it could weigh hundreds of pounds. Thankfully, it was a naturally created material, so I didn’t particularly need to know about its creation process.
Focusing on my Create Lesser Object spell, I made a pile of adamantine that came up to my knees. Unfortunately, that was all I was able to make with my mana, but it should be more than enough even if she wanted to make a full suit of armor and a hammer. “Anything else?”
Cynthia smirked a bit, still working on the sword. “You can start making some stones for those swords, if you’d like? I’ve just got this one left, and then I’ll be working on a few hammers.”
“Alright. Anything specific you want from the stones?”
“I’ll leave that to your judgement. Bajar has a few, as well that he’s selling, so you have options.”
Nodding, I got to work, spending the rest of the day making or purchasing various Mana Stones for Cynthia’s swords. Strangely, she seemed more confident in the forge than I had ever seen her elsewhere. The weapons she was making were also definitely of master quality, making me a bit envious of her quick training speed. Of course, since I was there at the forge to make and acquire the stones, she had another sudden leap in skill.
Name: Cynthia
Race: Human
Title: Hard Worker
Fame: 40
Gild: ∞
Level: 316
Health: 5085+1271
Mana: 0
Strength: 375+467
Agility: 200
Endurance: 1007
Wisdom: 20
Intelligence: 30+3
Luck: 40
Attack: 10 + 685
Defense: 135+644(+156)
Talents: Swordsmanship 36, Shield 32, Heavy Armor 37, Hidden Strength 25, Hammer Mastery 40, Fortified Health 25, Blacksmith 40, Spear 30, Dual Wield 26, Guardian 15, Scholar 10
Title Bonuses: +10 all stats, +20 Luck
Equipment Bonus: +20% Defense, +50% Health Recovery
Just another eleven levels and she’ll catch up… I was very tempted to just have her read in the library for the next few days, because her overall power was already far greater than either Denise or myself. Though it did have me curious about her Hidden Strength talent, since the other attribute talents only increase by one percent per level, while this one seems to do so by five percent. Maybe there are different levels of attribute talents? I thought that theory over while working on her Mana Stones.
Chapter 25
Over the next three days, I spent almost my entire time inside Solomon’s Library, studying its vast assortment of books in an attempt to level up my Scholar talent. One thing I quickly learned was the first skill that came with the talent, known as Theory. This skill had the astonishing effect of allowing me to level up skills and spells by reading information related to them. Of course, I first tried to cheat by using the Speed Reading skill to quickly grind, but doing so gave me no points for either my talent or my spells. The only way for Scholar to come into play was if I read the book manually.
The second skill from Scholar came thanks to a combination of my Magical Knowledge, Scholar, and Runescript talents. It was a skill known as Scribe, which allowed me to create spell scrolls. From the information I found, a spell scroll is similar to what you would find in many games, a simple scroll containing a single-use spell. The spell diagram is infused directly into the paper via concentrated magical energy, but the activation sequence, typically the spell’s chant, must be written on the page. Since a scroll’s spell diagram is invisible, the only methods to identify what is written on it is to either cast it, reverse engineer the spell from the chant, or use a spell like Scan to directly find the diagram.
There are certain restrictions placed on the Scribe skill, particularly the level of spell that can be placed on it. For the Beginner level, only tier 1 spells can be scribed, and then tier 2 for Intermediate, tier 3 for Advanced, and tier 4 for Master scribes. Special techniques are required to scribe tier 5 spells, similar to enchanting. Even at my current level, I had no confidence when it came to enchanting a tier 5 spell.
While reading, and thus leveling up my abilities, I studied several different books on the subject of auras. Thanks to that, my knowledge on magic itself was able to expand. Previously, I had believed that only a person with Magical Talent would be capable of producing an aura, as the talent is required to use mana. However, I discovered that any living plant or creature possesses an aura. For warriors, this was known as ‘fighting spirit’, while monks referred to it as ki.
The difference between these three types of aura lies in their training methods. For a mage, their aura increases as they gain intelligence and study the secrets of magic. For a monk, their aura increases as they gain mastery over their own body. Finally, warriors are able to increase their aura through combat experience. In that sense, Cynthia’s aura would be weak compared to most fighters, as she has only been in one serious fight. Denise, on the other hand, would likely have a powerful aura.
There is also a slight difference in the manner that the three auras are used. Mages use their auras for spells, monks use theirs for internal strikes, and fighters use theirs to increase their fighting power. It took quite a while before I managed to find a book detailing the aura methods used by elementals. It had been written by a mage nearly a century ago, who had been studying elementals due to a desire to create the perfect hybrid elemental.
According to this person’s research, an elemental’s aura is a fundamental part of their existence. It would not be an exaggeration to say that their entire body was formed from their aura. The only actual part of an elemental’s body was its core. A living elemental was capable of expanding their aura outwards, using the elements around them to construct a body. The humanoid shapes of these creatures are simply a matter of convenience. There is no reason why they could not turn into giant beasts, so long as they had the energy to maintain that form.
In order to fully understand the target of his fascination, this researcher began training himself to form an aura capable of mimicking their own. In those days, it was rare for elves to teach outsiders Nature magic, so he had to make due by studying the individual elemental schools. On top of that, he spent years doing visualisation training just so he could manifest his aura in a semi-solid shape.
After these steps had been completed, it was only a matter of time before he achieved results. What he came up with was a new style of magic that he named Auracasting. The idea was to use only his aura to fight, without relying on any runes. Doing so seemed to minimize the energy he expended, and allowed for a great deal more flexibility than spells. However, the downside was that he was restricted to using only what was
on hand. If he were in the desert, it was unlikely that he would be capable of releasing either water or fire attacks, for example.
Another great thing I learned from these books was the method to release a projectile from my aura. To do so, I simply needed to further condense my energy into the shape I wanted, until it began to glow. At that point, it would be able to be launched without dissipating, because it had enough energy to travel. Although, in order to do this with an elemental attack, I first had to infuse the projectile with the element I was using. The easiest way to do this was by making a wind blast, as wind is naturally found anywhere that humans can live.
The final thing I learned from the studying of this man’s research was the method to fly. Once mastered, it would use no energy to maintain, making it more efficient than a spell. My previous attempts to perform this were to control the wind around my body to create an updraft that would lift me. While this is possible, it uses far too much energy to be practical. The method this mage came up with was to entirely infuse the air element into his body, causing it to become as light as air, and then using his aura to directly control its movements. He named this ability Elemental Ascension, as it was capable of causing effects with fire, water, and earth as well.
The Dive: Birth of a Hero Page 36